Alternator and solar charging at same time? (1 Viewer)

[treeman]

Got my solar panel always connected via a charge controller to LB but thought when I'm driving my Zigg CF8 is often switched to charge both LB and vehicle battery at same time. Is this likely to cause any problems or should I always make sure only 1 charger is charging each battery at a time?

Also if I'm on hookup, a similar situation might occur, LB being charged by solar panel and Hookup. Again, should this be avoided?

 

[GJH]

On our van the leisure battery is charged via EHU and, when it is suffficiently charged, a trickle charge goes to the starter battery. The Elektroblok controller prevents overcharging.

When our solar panel was fitted it was wired into the Elektroblok so does a similar job, trickle charging the starter battery once the leisure battery has sufficient charge. The Elektroblok controller prevents overcharging whether power is coming from the solar panel alone or from both the panel and EHU.

If your van is wired in a similar fashion with an equivalent of the controller installed then I should have thought that it should work the same way.

 

[Gromett]

I have a B2B connected to the leisure batteries, a 240V mains charger and the solar panels (240W).

Obviously I can't have 240v while driving but other than that I pretty much always have 2 charge sources running at the same time with no problems.

I do occasionally hear the solar charger having a bit of a tussle with the 240V charger but they soon settle down... usually after the battery passes 13.8V.

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[Reallyretired]

On mine the raised voltage when driving fools my solar charger into thinking that the battery is fully charged so it shuts off. It does the same on mains charging.
No harm will come of it, you just won't be getting all the free energy available :Sad:

 

[treeman]

On mine the raised voltage when driving fools my solar charger into thinking that the battery is fully charged so it shuts off. It does the same on mains charging.
No harm will come of it, you just won't be getting all the free energy available :Sad:

I'll check that on my setup tomorrow, the same should be happening for me hopefully. Thanks for the pointer.